Over 150 high-level representatives from more than 30 countries of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean will be attending this two-day event.

Three regional cooperation programmes of the European Union (COPOLAD II, EL PAcCTO and EUROsociAL+) have united their forces and innovative working methods to organize the Bi-Regional Conference on the Development of Alternatives to the Deprivation of Liberty.

The activity will take place on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 September at the Auditorium of the Executive Tower of The Presidency of the Republic and at the Radisson Victoria Plaza Hotel, respectively.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the average rate of people deprived of liberty exceeds 226/100,000 inhabitants, and the number is steadily increasing. The aim of this two-day event is to reflect on the management of criminal, correctional and reintegration policies, to present measures alternative to deprivation of liberty and to raise awareness of the advantages offered by these novel and effective proposals in judicial, economic, social and political terms for all countries.

Justice experts, people from the correctional sector and institutional representatives from several countries will participate in roundtables and chat-shows with the aim of promoting debate and sharing successful experiences on the implementation of the measures other than imprisonment. Such actions are aimed at reducing prison overcrowding, lowering recidivism rates, facilitating processes to improve the social reintegration of inmates and more effectively combating organized crime, which is thriving in the region's prisons.

These challenges are in line with the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and include the gender perspective in the policies proposed as alternative to prisons. The opening of the conference will be on Thursday 19 September at 09:00 hours, and will be chaired by Jorge de la Caballería, from the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development of the European Commission.

Among other authorities, Uruguay will be represented by Juan Andrés Roballo, Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic and President of the Board of Directors of the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation; Jorge Diaz Almeida, Attorney General, Elena Martínez Rosso, Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice, Eduardo Bonomi, Interior Minister and Andrea Vignolo, CEO of the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation.